Many transportation vehicles presently include wireless tracking devices in the form of RF transceivers or at least transmitters utilized by transportation companies whereby the transportation company can monitor the progress of a given transportation vehicle en route to any given destination. Further, transportation companies upon learning of a new item to be transported can often times use the location information obtained to divert a nearby transportation vehicle to pick up the item on the way to a previously established destination.
It should be noted that transportation devices, as referenced throughout this document, include not only containers like briefcases, suitcases, boxes, envelopes, storage racks, cabinets, safes, refrigerators, insulated boxes, and the like, but also aircraft, box trucks, conventional railroad cars, seagoing vessels, intermodal containers, trailers, flatbed trailers and even the decks of ships transporting items loaded on deck as opposed to the hold of the ship. Thus, throughout this document the terms “transportation vehicle” as well as “transportation structures or devices” may refer to self-propelled vehicles as well as beacon or other wirelessly identifiable structures, entities, storage devices and various other enclosures that can be used in the total process of transporting an asset to and temporarily storing same for pickup by a customer in another location. In similar manner, a wirelessly identifiable structure may include not only a transportation device but may also refer to a location where an asset stored at an intermediate or final location in the overall transportation process.
While GPS enabled or other location determining tracking devices can report location of the tracking device when they are in an environment whereby appropriate RF signals can be detected and utilized to determine location, this location determining ability is often compromised when the tracking device is loaded into a transportation vehicle with many other assets. Both the structure of the transportation vehicle and the other assets can interfere with location determining circuitry whether it is GPS or other location determining algorithms known to those skilled in the art. Further, when the transportation vehicle is an aircraft, federal regulations presently prohibit RF transmissions in the cargo area of any commercial airline.
As is well known, many assets being transported today do not include an accompanying location aware tracking device and thus must rely on manual processes such as written recordation or bar code scanning in order to record when the asset is loaded into a transportation container and/or vehicle. Manual processes are prone to failure and in many cases such failure is not captured immediately in electronic systems whereby external parties may receive notifications. Thus the combination of manual processes and lack of real time data transfer can act to inhibit the accuracy, quality and velocity of asset transportation and routing throughout the global supply chain.
Although advance scheduling information may be obtained as to, especially in the matter of airlines, which specific transportation vehicle will be transporting a given asset, mistakes occur and assets are either lost, misplaced or for other reasons mishandled. Often, if such mistakes occur, the assets are transported on other vehicles which may present scheduling and chain of custody issues when managing time critical and highly valuable shipments.
Some tracking or monitoring devices include sensors. Such sensors may include temperature, shock and light and a record is kept in the tracking or monitoring device and/or is transmitted to a remotely located central station whereby the cause (or at least the likely cause) of any damage to the asset may be ascertained. A customer is especially interested in determining if damage occurs while loading or unloading a transportation vehicle, or within the custody of certain parties. Likewise shock events that occur during loading and unloading may present greater potential for harm to a given asset than shock events that may occur during transportation. Thus an interested party may desire a method to isolate certain handling or environmental events that occur while cargo is being loaded onto a truck versus events that occur along the highway while a transportation device, such as a truck, is in motion. As will be realized, pothole type shocks would only occur in the case of truck type transportation but not likely to occur when the transportation vehicle is an airplane, train or ship. Thus it would also be beneficial for a tracking device to have a way to ascertain the type of vehicle or container in which it has been loaded in order that its behavior may be modified or otherwise adapted to monitor certain events of interest that are unique to a given type of transportation vehicle and/or container. This adaptation of behavior may be instituted either by the electronic device or via a communication with a central station. A light sensor in a tracking device is often used to detect sudden changes in light level due to opening cargo doors or packages. When such light is sensed at locations other than scheduled stops or areas where a package is expected to be opened, the tracking device may attempt to transmit an alert that theft may be occurring. Such an alert transmission would be undesirable if the transportation vehicle happened to be a truck having a fiberglass roof that allowed a considerable amount of light into the cargo area during daytime transport.
While not all transportation vehicles include vehicle specific identifiable RF transmissions, short range or otherwise low power wireless signal transmitting beacons are available from many different sources. Some use a 433 MHz internationally free band slot. Others, such as proximity content delivery beacons known in the industry as iBeacons, use the Bluetooth frequency band. Thus, any transportation vehicle may readily be adapted to be easily identified when an RF or other wireless receiver is in reasonable proximity to a transportation vehicle having such a beacon. Likewise, any intermediate or final destination storage area can be equipped with a transmitter of signals whereby it becomes a wirelessly identifiable structure. As will be apparent to anyone skilled in the art, many various types of wireless technology may be employed in such scenarios.
It would thus be desirable to have tracking or monitoring devices be able to determine the identity and thus the specific vehicle into which the tracking device is being loaded or specific storage area of a structure that the tracking device is being placed and to be able to transmit that information to a remote central station. A further advantage of knowing that a tracking device is being transported by a specific vehicle permits tracking of the asset by knowing the location of the transportation vehicle even in situations such as airplanes where the tracking device itself is not permitted transmissions to a central station.
It would also be desirable to be able to modify the sensing parameters of the tracking device to be more suitable in reporting events to different environmental happenings or contingencies for each transportation vehicle and/or container used in the process of being delivered to a final destination.
Further it would be desirable to have access to an early warning alert that a tracking device has not been loaded onto a scheduled vehicle by a scheduled or otherwise anticipated date and/or time whereby steps can immediately be taken to rectify or minimize situational damage.